Sydney-bound Qantas jetliner returns to SIN

[Naim 6]

Where did you get that from, Doc ? This is news to me !!!

...

 

It was in the news here on the day of incident, report from Batam.

[flee 5]

Component failed on Qantas A380's engine: Rolls-Royce

 

Rolls-Royce has concluded that a component failure in the turbine section of a Trent 900 engine fitted to a Qantas Airbus A380 led to the oil fire which destroyed the powerplant in-flight.

 

In an update to the investigation today the manufacturer states that the failure was "confined to a specific component" in the turbine area.

 

It has not detailed the nature of the component but reiterates that the problem is specific to the Trent 900 powerplant, which is fitted to 20 of the 37 A380s in operation worldwide.

 

Rolls-Royce says that the failure caused an oil fire and the subsequent loss of the intermediate-pressure turbine disc.

 

The 4 November incident wrecked the rear half of the engine and caused damage to the surrounding airframe structure - the extent of which has yet to be fully disclosed. The Qantas aircraft landed safely in Singapore.

 

"Our process of inspection will continue and will be supplemented by the replacement of the relevant module according to an agreed programme," says Rolls-Royce.

 

"These measures, undertaken in collaboration with Airbus, our Trent 900 customers and the regulators have regrettably led to some reduction in aircraft availability.

 

"This programme will enable our customers progressively to bring the whole fleet back into service."

 

In a financial update today Rolls-Royce admits that underlying profit growth for the full year will be "slightly lower" than previously forecast as a result of the Trent 900 incident.

Chief executive Sir John Rose says: "This event and the consequent actions will have an impact on the group's financial performance this year."

 

All three operators of Trent-powered A380s - Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa - have undertaken engine changes, for various reasons, since the incident. Qantas' A380 fleet remains grounded.

 

Source: http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/11/12/349649/component-failed-on-qantas-a380s-engine-rolls-royce.html

[alberttky 0]

What else is new...

 

-----------------------------------------------------

 

Another Qantas flight turns back

 

SYDNEY - ENGINE problems hit another Qantas airliner on Friday, forcing a domestic Australian flight to turn back and land shortly after takeoff.

 

The Boeing 767 with 234 passengers on board returned to Perth, in Western Australia, 10 minutes after taking off to fly to Melbourne, the Australian Associated Press (AAP) said.

 

'Soon after take-off, the flight crew detected some vibration in the left-hand engine of the Boeing 767 aircraft,' Qantas spokesman Mr Simon Rushton told AAP.

 

The incident came a day after Qantas grounded its entire fleet of Airbus A380 superjumbos after a mid-air blowout a week earlier on one of the planes' Rolls-Royce engines prompted serious safety worries.

 

The Boeing was powered by GE engines, AAP reported, and Mr Rushton told the news agency last week's A380 blowout had not influenced the crew's decision to turn back.

 

Rolls-Royce on Friday pinpointed the failure of a 'specific component' in its Trent 900 engine as the cause of an oil fire which forced the A380 to make an emergency landing last week. -- AFP

 

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_602567.html

[Denny Yen 0]

http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/qantas-scarebus-qf32-was-a-flying-wreck/story-e6frfq80-1225952363505

Qantas 'scarebus' QF32 was a flying wreck

 

WHAT WENT WRONG ON QF32?

• Massive fuel leak in the left mid fuel tank (there are 11 tanks, including in the horizontal stabiliser on the tail)
  
• Massive fuel leak in the left inner fuel tank
  
• A hole on the flap fairing big enough to climb through
  
• The aft gallery in the fuel system failed, preventing many fuel transfer functions
  
• Problem jettisoning fuel
  
• Massive hole in the upper wing surface
  
• Partial failure of leading edge slats
  
• Partial failure of speed brakes/ground spoilers
  
• Shrapnel damage to the flaps
  
• Total loss of all hydraulic fluid in one of the jet's two systems
  
• Manual extension of landing gear
  
• Loss of one generator and associated systems
  
• Loss of brake anti-skid system
  
• No.1 engine could not be shut down in the usual way after landing because of major damage to systems
  
• No.1 engine could not be shut down using the fire switch, which meant fire extinguishers would not work on that engine
  
• ECAM (electronic centralised aircraft monitor) warnings about the major fuel imbalance (because of fuel leaks on left side) could not be fixed with cross-feeding
  
• Fuel was trapped in the trim tank (in the tail)creating a balance problem for landing
  
• Left wing forward spar penetrated by debris

 

The engine of the Qantas Airbus A380 plane after an emergency landing at Singapore last Thursday

 

A QANTAS superjumbo was a flying wreck after an engine exploded shooting chunks of metal through fuel tanks and flight control systems.

 

Last week's mid-air emergency off Singapore also badly damaged a wing, which may have to be replaced.

 

A full list of the damage to the Airbus A380 has been revealed after it was nursed back to Singapore on three engines.

 

When it touched down the fuel systems were failing, the forward spar supporting the left wing had been holed and one of the jet's two hydraulic systems was knocked out and totally drained of fluid.

 

Sources compared flight QF32 to the Memphis Belle, the World War II bomber that became the subject of a fictional award-winning 1990s Hollywood movie by the same name. The film portrayed the heavily damaged aircraft landing in England after a bombing raid on Germany.

 

Richard Woodward, vice-president of the International Air Pilots' Federation, told the Herald Sun yesterday that the lesson from the near disaster was the value of an experienced flight crew.

 

"There was a wealth of experience in the cockpit, even the lowest ranked officer on board had thousands of hours of experience in his former role as a military flying instructor," said Capt Woodward, himself an A380 pilot on leave from Qantas.

 

As another senior pilot said: "It is bad enough for an engine to explode in mid-air let alone lose so many secondary systems".

 

Investigators found shrapnel damage to the flaps, a huge hole in the upper surface of the left wing and a generator that was not working.

 

The crew could not shutdown the No. 1 engine using the fire switch.

 

As a result the engine's fire extinguishers could not be deployed.

 

Captain Richard de Crespigny, first officer Matt Hicks and Mark Johnson, the second officer, could not jettison the volume of fuel required for a safe emergency landing.

 

With more than 80 tonnes of highly volatile jet kerosene still in the 11 tanks -- two of which were leaking - they made an overweight and high speed approach to Changi Airport.

 

Without full hydraulics the spoilers - the hinged flaps on the front of the wings - could not be fully deployed to slow the jet.

 

The crew also had to rely on gravity for the undercarriage to drop and lock into place.

 

On landing they had no anti-skid brakes and could rely on only one engine for reverse thrust - needing all of the 4km runway at Changi to bring the jet to a stop.

 

The three crew have been interviewed by Australian investigators and cleared to return to duties.

 

Industry sources said the damage will almost certainly put the airline's flagship jet - the Nancy-Bird Walton - out of service for months.

 

Investigators found that an oil fire may have caused the engine to explode.

 

Details of the stricken jet's problems were revealed yesterday in an emergency directive by the European Aviation Safety Authority.

 

The authority made it mandatory for airlines with the now suspect Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines to make checks for excess oil.

 

If not detected, excess oil can cause a fire and ultimately result in "uncontained" engine failure, with potential damage to the aeroplane and to people or property on the ground.

 

Qantas made it clear it will keep its six superjumbos grounded indefinitely and has rearranged flight schedules using substitute aircraft.

 

"The specific checks mandated by the directive were already being carried out by Qantas in conjunction with Rolls-Royce," it said.

 

"Qantas's A380 aircraft will not return to service until there is complete certainty that the fleet can operate safely."

[alberttky 0]

Spare engine for QF6 I suppose...

 

[Naim 6]

Another one!

 

===

 

 

Qantas flight turns back to Sydney

 

Paul Tatnell and Glenda Kwek

November 15, 2010 - 2:47PM

 

A Qantas plane en route to Argentina has been forced to return to Sydney after an electrical problem led to smoke in the cockpit, the fifth in-flight or pre-flight incident since an engine failure on a Singapore-bound A380 flight 11 days ago.

 

QF17, which took off from Sydney Airport at 11.11am today with 199 passengers on board, turned back about an hour into the flight to Buenos Aires, a Qantas spokeswoman said.

 

...

 

READ MORE HERE: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/qantas-flight-turns-back-to-sydney-20101115-17tqs.html

[Mohd Suhaimi Fariz 2]

This is getting ridiculous for Qantas. Or it's ridiculous because of the sensationalist media.

[Denny Yen 0]

QF A380's high-powered take-off - at 72,000lbs thrust, higher than other operators but still within Trent 990 max.75,000lbs - may be the problem? One would wonder why RR never discovered this during testing?!!

 

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/a380-take-off-may-be-the-problem/story-e6frg95x-1225949668495

 

HIGH-POWER take-offs used by Qantas A380s on trans-Pacific routes could be responsible for potentially dangerous oil leaks now under scrutiny.

 

The leaks may be a possible factor in last week's engine explosion near Singapore.

 

Engineers believe the higher thrust levels at which the carrier operates its Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines may result in resonating vibrations that cause oil lines to crack.

 

The theory has emerged after in-depth inspections uncovered oil in three A380 engines in areas where it should not be present.

 

All three engines are being replaced as the airline continues with its regime of rigorous checks in the wake of the near disaster on flight QF32 last Thursday.

 

The Qantas A380 involved, which came into service two years ago, was also used for the trans-Pacific story. The oil leaks in the three engines, found in the intermediate pressure turbine area housing a disc similar to the one that disintegrated in last week's spectacular mid-air drama, caused spotting and pooling that had the potential to spark damaging fires in the engine.

 

An August oil fire in the same area of a Trent 1000 engine, a derivative of the 900, is believed to be responsible for an uncontained failure on a test bed in Britain.

 

Qantas A380s have a maximum thrust setting of 72,000lbs, higher than fellow Trent 900 operators Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines but still 3000lbs below the design limit of 75,000lbs. It uses the extra thrust for maximum weight take-offs on the long-haul routes between Los Angeles, Sydney and Melbourne.

 

The extra thrust is particularly important on the Melbourne route which, at more than 15 hours, is the longest in the Qantas network.

 

Engineers from Qantas and Rolls-Royce had been looking for reasons the oil leaks had been found in Qantas planes but had not turned up in inspections performed by Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa. They were particularly concerned the engines were relatively new, with the damaged engine on QF32 having recorded just 900 landings and take-offs before it flew apart.

 

The engines on the three planes are identical except for a computer chip that defines the maximum power rating and the engine is certified to operate at the higher thrust level.

 

The engineers arrived at what is now the flying kangaroo's lead theory after considering whether the engines might be acting differently during operations from their performance in factory tests.

 

If the theory pans out, the hope is that Rolls-Royce can devise a way of operating the engine on take-offs and climbs that does not produce the damaging resonance.

 

The airline is continuing to inspect for other potential engine faults, but Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said yesterday the focus of the investigation had narrowed in terms of the oil leaks and he was comfortable it was on the right track.

 

Mr Joyce said the leaks should not be occurring and were outside the normal specifications and design of the aircraft. He said it was too early to be definitive on what the issues causing the engines to perform outside normal parameters were, or how long they would take to be repaired.

 

"We are working very closely to get a speedy recovery on this, but I won't comment on how long it will take until that investigation is completed," he said.

 

Mr Joyce said the airline would not resume flying the A380s until it was 100 per cent sure its operations were safe. It has already replaced one of the three affected engines, has a second spare ready to go and is working with Rolls-Royce on finding a third.

[S M Tang 0]

Another Qantas turnaround! My link

 

A Qantas plane en route to Argentina has been forced to return to Sydney after an electrical problem led to smoke in the cockpit, the fifth in-flight or pre-flight incident since an engine failure on a Singapore-bound A380 flight 11 days ago.

 

QF17, which took off from Sydney Airport at 11.11am today with 199 passengers on board, turned back about an hour into the flight to Buenos Aires, a Qantas spokeswoman said.

 

A friend of one of the passengers said the pilot announced there was smoke coming from the instrument panel.

 

A Qantas spokesman confirmed an electrical problem had caused the smoke.

 

Passenger Teague Czislowski, a Sydney lawyer, said fellow travellers became concerned when they noticed fuel coming out of the wings.

 

"About an hour into the flight we suddenly did a 180-degree turn and you could see the wing section and while it looked like there was smoke coming out of it, it was actually the fuel dump taking place," he said.

 

Electrics out

 

"The first thing you noticed was then the electrics going out. There was no lights, no entertainment, only the emergency panels were on."

 

Mr Czislowski said the flight then headed towards Sydney and circled Botany Bay for "what seemed like ages so they could keep dumping fuel".

 

He said passengers had not been told why there were returning.

 

"I have on my watch an altimeter and it had shown they had fully depressurised the cabin," he said.

 

"As we came in to land you didn't hear the normal electrical sounds when they activate the landing gear but you could hear something, like they were manually doing it.

 

"We were pretty bloody concerned and they did tell us it would be all OK, but we weren't sure. There were no electrics and you really wondered whether they were flying the plane OK."

 

The plane landed "very smoothly", Mr Czislowski said, but only then did passengers realise the "seriousness of it all".

 

Mr Czislowski, who was heading to Brazil for a wedding, said passengers celebrated and some even hissed once the flight landed.

 

Met by fire engines

 

"We were waiting on the tarmac and ... then we were met by all the fire engines and fire brigade, there were reams and reams of them, and then we realised something major must have happened," he said.

 

"We then pulled up and told to say in our seats and ... then the captain came through the cabin stopping at 10-metre intervals so people could hear.

 

"He explained that they took off and everything was fine. They finished their ascent and everything was fine and then smoke started coming out of their flight control at their panel upfront and that's when they knew there was some problem.

 

"They then went straight into emergency procedures and a series of tests."

 

Mr Czislowski said the latest Qantas mishap "is a disgrace".

 

"Excuse my French, but this is just another Qantas f--- up - that is what the QF probably stands for," he said.

 

"Questions from the passengers were whether maintenance crews were putting all their attention into [the problems with the] A-380s and this is why it happened.

 

"But, whatever it is, it's ridiculous. It is simply unacceptable and a lot of people were saying I just will stop flying Qantas."

 

Touch down

 

The Boeing 747-400, with three flight and 18 cabin crew, touched down safely at Sydney Airport at 1.22pm after priority clearance to land was given by air traffic control, a Qantas spokesman said.

 

"Engineers are inspecting the aircraft to determine the cause of the issue. Passengers have disembarked into the terminal building," the spokesman said.

 

"Reports that the aircraft lost pressure in the main cabin are incorrect. Oxygen supply to the cabin was unaffected."

 

The spokesman said the incident was reported to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the Air Transport Safety Bureau.

 

"Qantas regrets the inconvenience to passengers and will seek to make contingency arrangements for those affected."

 

A replacement flight would leave Sydney at 5pm, the spokesman said.

 

On Saturday, a missing screw delayed a Qantas flight from Sydney to Melbourne by an hour, while a QantasLink flight to Sydney from Coffs Harbour was delayed by five hours after a warning light indicated a problem with the engines as it came in to land.

 

On Friday, Melbourne-bound QF768 returned to Perth after flight crew noticed a vibration in the No.1 engine of the Boeing 767.

 

All of Qantas's Airbus A380s remain grounded after the November 4 midair engine explosion on QF32 from Singapore to Sydney. Both Qantas and Rolls Royce, the maker of the Trent 900 engine, are investigating the incident.

 

The following day, a Boeing 747-400 plane departing from Singapore and heading for Sydney had to turn back after a "contained engine failure".

 

Qantas's chief executive Alan Joyce defended the Australian airline's safety record during its 90th anniversary celebrations on Saturday.

 

"Hundreds if not thousands of these type of things would happen on airlines around the world every year," he said when asked about the incident involving QF768.

 

It is not known when the A380s will be cleared to fly again.

 

Qantas shares fell 5 cents immediately after news about this latest incident broke, but regained some of their value later.

[Naim 6]

@SteveVizardMTR: The flights are coming back so often now #QANTAS rumours are that they're changing their mascot from kangaroo to boomerang

 

http://twitter.com/#!/SteveVizardMTR

[alberttky 0]

Wonder how much gallons of fuel have they wasted over the past few weeks...

[Naim 6]

Boomerang indeed.

 

===

 

 

Qantas plane hit by birds

 

November 17, 2010 - 1:29PM

AAP

 

A Qantas international flight has been forced to turn back because birds flew into one of its engines.

 

A Qantas spokesman said flight QF64 from Johannesburg to Sydney experienced a bird strike on one of the four engines of the Boeing 747.

 

The incident happened a few minutes after take-off about 6pm local time on Tuesday.

...

 

READ MORE: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/qantas-plane-hit-by-birds-20101117-17wym.html

 

===

 

SIA Airbus fleet returns to service as Qantas mulls grounding till December

 

UPDATE: Steve Creedy, Aviation writer

From: The Australian

November 17, 2010 12:48PM

 

A Qantas A380 is inspected at Los Angeles International Airport after a mid-air emergency. Picture by AP Source: The Australian

 

QANTAS may wait till December before its Airbus A380s fly again, while Singapore Airlines has returned its 11-strong fleet to service.

 

The flying kangaroo is considering whether to divert engines meant for its undelivered aircraft to its grounded superjumbos.

 

Qantas today said it was looking at taking modified new engines meant for two of its aircraft on the Airbus production line in Toulouse, France to replace Trent 900 engines on grounded planes that have shown potentially dangerous oil leaks.

 

But it now appears that it will be next month at the earliest before the first Qantas Airbus A380 takes to the air, amid worries the peak summer season will be affected.

 

The flying kangaroo is taking an ultra-conservative approach to safety after the disintegration of an engine on an A380 near Singapore almost two weeks ago. An oil fire in the engine is believed to have caused the disintegration of an intermediate pressure turbine disc, which peppered the left wing with shrapnel and caused substantial damage.

 

...

READ MORE: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/aviation/sia-airbus-fleet-returns-to-service-as-qantas-mulls-grounding-till-december/story-e6frg95x-1225954948778

Edited November 17, 2010 by Naim

[Johan Z 0]

Poor QF. Now, they get all the unwanted attention.

[Denny Yen 0]

The Airbus presentation to accident investigators of the damage done to QF32 on November 4 gives new technical insights into this near disaster involving a Qantas A380 with 466 persons on board. The examination of the damage is far from complete, as the presentation makes clear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BC Tam 2]

18 November 2010 Last updated at 07:02 GMT

Forty Rolls Royce Airbus A380 engines 'need replacing'

 

Up to 40 Rolls-Royce engines on Airbus A380 superjumbos worldwide will need to be replaced, according to Australian airline Qantas.

 

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce was speaking two weeks after a Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine on an A380 exploded in mid-air, forcing an emergency landing.

 

Qantas has grounded its six A380s since the incident.

 

The Trent 900 engines are used on A380s operated by Qantas, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines.

 

Between them the three airlines operate 20 A380 planes, each of which has four Rolls-Royce engines.

 

Mr Joyce told reporters at Sydney airport the airline had already replaced three engines on its planes.

 

"We've been talking to Airbus and Rolls-Royce and we understand that the number [of engines to be replaced] is around 40," he said.

 

"We'll have a daily dialogue with Rolls-Royce to determine which engines actually need to be taken off," he said.

 

'Specific component'

 

Investigators believe an oil leak inside the engines may have caused the fire on the Qantas flight from Singapore to Sydney on 4 November.

 

Rolls-Royce has said the engine failure "was confined to a specific component" which led to an oil fire and loss of turbine pressure.

 

The plane was forced to return to Singapore shortly after take-off.

 

All 459 passengers and crew were unharmed, but analysts said it was the most serious incident in the three-year history of the Airbus plane.

 

All six of Qantas' A380s have been grounded while safety checks are carried out.

 

Singapore Airlines, with 11 A380s, said it has replaced three Trent 900s. Lufthansa, with three of the aircraft, said it has replaced one engine, but the reason was unrelated to the Qantas explosion.

 

Other A380 users Emirates and Air France do not use Rolls' engines.

 

Delay

 

Last week, Rolls said it had isolated the cause of the fault, and that the issue could have a slight impact on profits growth this year.

 

Airbus said that problems could delay future deliveries of A380s, but said it was too early to determine the impact.

 

Rolls had been due to hold a press conference at a Chinese air show on Wednesday, but cancelled without giving a reason.

 

from the BBC

Edited November 18, 2010 by BC Tam

[KK Lee 5]

Qantas to resume flying Airbus A380 superjumbos

 

Qantas will initially only fly the Airbus A380 between London and Sydney

 

Qantas says it is to resume flying some of its A380 superjumbos on Saturday, three weeks after an engine explosion forced one of the airline's A380 planes to make an emergency landing.

 

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said he was satisfied the aircraft were safe to fly, following extensive checks.

 

Two superjumbos will initially fly the Sydney to London route, he added.

 

The pilots of a Qantas A380 made a successful emergency landing in Singapore on 4 November.

 

After the incident, the Australian airline grounded all six of its A380s.

 

Qantas was now working with Airbus and British engine-maker Rolls-Royce to get all six superjumbos back in the air, Mr Joyce said.

 

"We're completely comfortable with the operation of the aircraft," he said.

 

Rolls-Royce has said the engine failure on 4 November "was confined to a specific component" which led to an oil fire and loss of turbine pressure.

 

Flying debris from the engine then severed cables in the aircraft's wing, the plane's manufacturer Airbus said.

 

The A380 is the flagship of the European aviation giant's fleet.

 

The result of a long and costly research programme, it made its first commercial flight in 2007.

 

It is the world's largest passenger airliner, a double-decker which can carry up to 800 people - though Qantas A380s are set up to carry about 450.

 

All 459 passengers and crew on the plane that made the emergency landing three weeks ago were unharmed.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11817317

[michgyver 0]

SYDNEY: Australia's Qantas Airways said on Tuesday that its fleet of A380 superjumbos will start returning to service from Saturday, Nov 27, reports China's Xinhua news agency.

 

"We are completely comfortable with the operation of the aircraft," chief executive Alan Joyce told reporters on Tuesday.

[Teoh Z Yao 0]

Trivia:

 

Met an ex-engineer from Airbus involved in the development of the A380. Claimed RR engine on A380 is problematic.

[KK Lee 5]

Air safety investigators in Australia say they have identified a serious manufacturing fault with engines fitted to Airbus A380 passenger jets.

 

A misaligned component of the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine used on a Qantas A380 which exploded last month thinned the wall of an oil pipe.

 

This caused "fatigue cracking", which prompted leakage and ultimately a fire.

 

The investigators warned that the critical safety issue could potentially lead to "catastrophic engine failure".

 

"This condition could lead to an elevated risk of fatigue crack initiation and growth, oil leakage and potential catastrophic engine failure from a resulting oil fire," the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said.

 

It said the problem was "understood to be related to the manufacturing process."

 

It urged Rolls-Royce to "address the safety issue and take actions necessary to ensure the safety of flight operations in transport aircraft equipped with Rolls-Royce Trent 900 series engines."

 

Qantas said it would conduct further engine investigations as a precautionary measure, but stressed that there was "no immediate risk".

 

"Qantas currently has two A380 aircraft in operational service, following the grounding of the fleet on 4 November. Both A380 aircraft will be inspected at the Qantas Jet Base in Sydney," the airline said.

 

Singapore Airlines, which also uses A380s with the Rolls-Royce engine, says it is already checking its fleet "on a daily basis".

 

"The new checks advised by the ATSB will be carried out as quickly as possible," the airline said in a statement.

 

Qantas Flight QF32 experienced an engine failure over western Indonesia, before safely returning to Changi airport. It was carrying 440 passengers and 26 crew.

 

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said at the time of the emergency landing that it appeared the blowout was "an engine issue" and not one of maintenance on the two-year-old plane.

 

It was the most serious incident involving the twin-deck A380 superjumbo passenger plane in its three years of service.

 

Not all A380s use Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines. They are used on 20 aircraft owned by Qantas, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines.

 

The other A380 aircraft - with Air France and Emirates - use a different engine.

 

The double-decker A380 is the world's largest passenger airliner, and can carry up to 800 people. The six Qantas A380s carry about 475.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11895106

[Azman MN 1]

I was on a Qantas 767 from Mel-Syd on 23 November. The Captain joked during his welcoming remark that "Please don't be alarmed when you look out the window and think that an engine is missing, the 767 only has 2 engines, one on each side".

 

Then we spooled up for take-off, moved a few meters and stopped again. We thought.. oh god.. that captain shouldn't have...

 

so we exited the runway and the captain said there was an aircraft crossing the runway so we had to abort, phew... Flight was great by the way. I like Qantas. Very good crew, very spontaneous.

 

I also had 2 A380 flights on SQ last month. Only the more usual problems, i.e., IFE kept on resetting on one flight, and on the other the chiller broke down so we had breakfast 7 hours before landing in ZRH, having only finished dinner 4 hours before that, etc.

[flee 5]

On 4 November Qantas flight QF32, an Airbus A380 outbound from Singapore, ran into serious problems when a turbine on its Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine suffered an uncontained failure. We caught up with one of the five pilots onboard, who describes how the crew professionally dealt with the incident, the sequence of events, and how the most dangerous period was after they had landed.

 

Full article (Warning, very long!): http://www.aerosocietychannel.com/aerospace-insight/2010/12/exclusive-qantas-qf32-flight-from-the-cockpit/

[S M Tang 0]

Saw this on flightblogger regarding the infamous incident. HERE

It'll lead you to ABC's website HERE. Pretty interesting stuff!

[Pieter C. 5]

Thanks a lot for sharing !!!

 

ABC's website has some interesting links aswell...

[Gavin Andrew David 6]

THIS IS HOW ACI ShOuOLD BE !

 

Love the realism !

[alberttky 0]

Is the aircraft being repaired? Or being written off?